We The Professors

SHARE AND SHARE AGAIN

In his wonderful new book titled “What to Do When It’s Your Turn” Seth Godin writes:

“Many powerful organizations fear a truth-teller. They work hard to avoid being confronted by an individual who sees the world as it is and by a person who cares enough to change things.”

This quote applies absolutely to colleges, universities, schools, departments, committees, requirements, and courses.

Too many administrators of every kind make excuses about why maintaining the status quo and not rocking the boat and not making waves (or even ripples) are the right ways and the easy ways to run an organization of any size.

If your life is in higher education, share this with the people you work with and for, and tell them to share it with the people they work with and for.

And maybe, just maybe, just maybe the truth-tellers and the ones who care can emerge.

 

A DAY, A WEEK, A MONTH, A YEAR…A START

What if there could be a worldwide higher education re-imagination day?

On this day every college and university on the planet would individually sit down and brainstorm, discuss, debate, argue and create ideas and strategies and proposals for the future of higher education.

And then each college and university would organize and categorize these ideas.

And then each college and university would make plans to implement these ideas.

And then every college and university would submit these ideas to an organization specifically created to re-imagine the re-imaginings and to categorize and distribute the best of them.

And what if, instead of a day, this worldwide higher education re-imagination event was a week, or a month, or a year?

And what if the present and future of higher education was actually changed by the energy of the ideas and the plethora of ideas that could genuinely and significantly and, yes, passionately generate international discussion. And what if this discussion was not just endless rhetoric that goes on forever and ever, but discussion that lasts a short time and results in genuine change.

It could happen. It needs to happen. Maybe not at every school, but certainly at many, many, many schools.  After all, the future is getting closer and closer.

All that’s required is a team of energized dreamers to organize and implement these events.

 

DISCUSSION, DIALOGUE, QUESTIONS, READINGS AND BEGINNINGS

Often faculty have the problem of simply not being able to begin a meaningful discussion in a class. Where do you start? Do you call on students? Do you ask a question and hope for the best? Are your students so used to the fact that you lecture that they just feel like they do not need to answer questions or talk? Or maybe you’re one of those profs who ask a question, wait 10 seconds, then answers it yourself.

Regardless, there are many, many, many reasons to have meaningful discussions in most courses. Here’s how I have done it.

I assume that in your courses students have regular readings between classes, and that you expect them to come to class having done the reading. I’m also assuming the class has not too many more than 25 students.

Here’s what you do.

Walk into the classroom a few minutes early. Sit somewhere in the classroom and arrange your seat so that the class can sit around you, or at least that all of them can arrange themselves to see you. DO NOT SIT IN FRONT OF THE ROOM.  Make miscellaneous small talk with students as they enter. Be genuine. Do not fake it or force it.

When class time arrives, read a short and fascinating passage either from the reading or just a passage related to the subject of the class. (If you usually take attendance, do it later in the class.) Don’t make what you read more than two or three paragraphs. Then, ask a great—not just a good--discussion question related to what you just read. Make the question you ask something you have spent time on to make certain it is interesting enough to generate discussion. Then, wait. Make eye contact as you look at the students. Wait for an answer. Sometimes I have requested the answer also be in the form of a question.

Then move forward, waiting for other students to respond with either comments or questions. Ask questions of your own and make comments as though you were just a member of the class. But always remember that your job is also to be in charge, to keep the discussion going, and to maintain adherence to the topic.

Keep things moving quickly and significantly for 30 minutes. Then pass out note cards and ask students to summarize the key points made in the discussion. Then end the class conversation by discussing the summaries, or by providing your own perspective on the day’s topic.  But do not walk to the front of the room. Maintain your position within the confines of the class. Use your comments at the end of the class to create closure and to serve as what a teacher is, an authority figure on the understanding of the topic.

The keys to success in this type of activity are beginning with a reading and asking questions that do generate discussion. Take time to come up with things that are exactly right.

Finally, it’s obviously not necessary to do this kind of discussion during every class session. But, every few weeks it can be totally worthwhile.

  

CHOOSING COURSES THE WAY THEY OUGHT TO BE CHOSEN

Too many students choose courses by teacher rather than by interest or content.

“If Dr. Smith teaches the course I will not take that course no matter how much I might love the topic.”

“If Dr. Jones teaches the course I will take that course no matter what it is and what time it meets."

Consequently in many cases Dr. Smith’s courses do not get enough enrollees to be offered and therefore Dr. Smith is relegated to teaching only required courses and, too rarely, an elective in his/her area of specific knowledge.

One straightforward way to prevent this is to simply not list faculty names on the schedule of courses released to students before they make their choices. Just put TO BE DETERMINED by each course. Let students choose by content rather than by professor.

But what if a student wants to know about a specific course by talking to the prof about that course? Solution: Have a two-page summary of each course, written by the professor offering the course available in the department office (or online) for any student to examine.

But what if the problem is that if Dr. Lawrence teaches a particular course, then students who find that out when the semester begins will simply drop the class or, because Dr. Lawrence is so easy, students will pour into the course? Unfortunately, the remedy here is to either not hire or to get rid of faculty such as Dr. Lawrence. Departments with mediocre and unsatisfactory faculty do suffer the consequences of those faulty choices.

Hire the best. Keep course schedules anonymous.  

 

CONCEPTUALIZING THE FUTURE AND MAKING IT WORK

I don't often say this, but I consider what is written below to be an extremely important post. If you enjoy it and, I hope, agree with it then please share it with others at your school. The more people in higher education who understand the necessity of what is said, then the closer it can become to actually being accomplished.

Next post will be December 1.

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Would it work?
Is it a crazy idea?
Is it different from the way it has always been done?
Is it risky?
Would it dazzle?
Would it improve a situation?

Is it worth spending minutes, hours, days and weeks getting right?

The innovation space in higher education teaching is relatively small. While there is so much discussion about new techniques, new formats, new tools and new activities, most profs still primarily sit or stand in front of a class and talk.Flipping the classroom is in its infancy and may never grow at all into a significant method. Online classes are so varied in how they’re done that they are virtually indefinable. And many profs are simply uncomfortable doing things they’ve never done.

But what about finding new innovations—new ways of teaching that aren’t performances or lectures or group work or anything that is now done? What about ways that don’t remind traditional students that college is just more of the same “school” that they have disliked or hated or been bored by in the past.

How do we get the ideas, concepts and designs that will take higher education from point A to point Z?

• Perhaps the innovative course becomes just sitting around asking and answering questions.
• Perhaps the design becomes drastically altering course time patterns.
• Perhaps it’s the concept of scrapping the stand-alone course in favor of course groupings that are offered back-to-back-to-back.
• Or perhaps it’s just saying that the present system does not work the way it should and sitting down with a few others and figuring out ways to change the future. Ways that dazzle, ways that are not the ways of the past, ways that are risky or even a little crazy.  Ways that definitely do improve the situation.

And yes, education always does have to educate. But it cannot be your father’s way of educating. The ways of the one-room higher education schoolhouse just do not work. And that means that right now there’s an unmistakable need to create different ways.

And getting there is hard work.

Here are two brief examples to show you there are other ways.

Lots of higher education pundits discuss the use of guest speakers in courses. Guest speakers can be a new voice, an expert voice, a voice that says the same things you say but in a more authoritative and somehow more credible way. But most guest speakers are local in-the-flesh people brought into a class to talk.

Yet today’s technology makes the concept of guest speaker far broader. Using Skype or Google Hangouts or other related software and using today’s projection technology it is easily possible to bring guest speakers into your classrooms from anywhere in the world. All it takes is coordination, connections and the confidence to make it work.

And don’t just use one guest speaker. Take advantage of the many voices available to you during as many class sessions as possible. Few students would expect or reject an economics course taught by you with guests from Harvard, Switzerland, the U.S. Department of Economic Development, the Cato Institute and the London Centre for Economic Policy Research.

A second idea is along the same lines. There are a couple thousand TED talks on every topic imaginable. Why not begin each class session with a relevant TED talk that opens the door to the concept(s) of the day? Use each talk, which is really like having a knowledgeable guest speaker, as a springboard to questions, to discussions, to having students prepare and deliver relevant talks of their own. The sky’s the limit on their use.

These are ideas not for you to necessarily adopt, but rather to demonstrate that the whole objective and design of how to educate and how to teach and how to inspire can and must evolve.  It’s not an impossible task and it doesn’t have to be done all at once, or even alone.

But it does have to be done. Otherwise, the future is just another version of the past. And the past just isn’t working anymore.

Come up with ideas and innovations that are worth spending minutes, hours, days and weeks getting right? And be willing to do everything it takes to get from concept to reality. 

 

POTPOURRI FOR NOVEMBER

Ideas to ponder and to connect to higher education. From performance reviews to delighting students to forgetting technology to amazing resumes. 

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A post from the blog of the venture capital firm, First Round Capital. 

"When Carly Guthrie was running HR for Per Se, one of the hottest restaurants in New York, the General Manager gave her a piece of advice: “You know, Carly,” he said. “If we’re doing our job as leaders, a performance review should only be two columns: Column A is what you do great and Column B is what you do not-so-great. Now, here’s how we move things from Column B to Column A.”

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Warren Buffett, American business magnate, investor and philanthropist:

"If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength. But if we treat customers with indifference or tolerate bloat, our businesses will wither. On a daily basis, the effects of our actions are imperceptible; cumulatively, though, their consequences are enormous."

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John Lasseter is Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering: 

"Technology is amazing and it is getting better all the time. The tools are remarkable. But the most important thing is, as you are deciding to learn about computer animation, forget the technology! The technology never entertains an audience—it's what you do with the technology. Therefore, the most important thing to learn is learn the basics...learn the fundamentals...of art...of drawing....color theory....principles of animation..."

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From the blog of Seth Godin, American author, entrepreneur, and marketer:

"References available upon request

Of course your references are available upon request. What are you going to do, refuse? 

If your references are amazing, don't offer them on request, include them. If they're not stellar, do better work and get some stellar references. Give me names and phone numbers and actual testimonies."

 

THE END OF OCTOBER IS SCARY. MAKE THE BEGINNING FASCINATING.

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New posts every Monday and Thursday. 
Practical information, opinions and ideas for higher education.
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It either is or is fast approaching the second month of school. And it’s time to think even harder about where you are in your courses, what you’re doing, and what you can do to mix things up a bit. Here are some suggestions.

1) Pass out index cards 15 minutes before a class session ends. Tell your students you would like them to grade the quality of the course thus far. Tell them they are grading the entirety of the course, not just you. If they want to 
make a comment or two, tell them they may. Tell them that under no circumstances should they put their names on this card. Then designate one student to collect the cards and bring them to your office. Then leave the classroom.

2) For one class session, reverse the seating.  Since students are notorious for sitting in the same seats every class, have students literally reverse their positions. Students in the last row sit in the first row. Students in the next to last row sit in the second row, etc., etc. Obviously don’t force the issue, but do this in such a way that all students will feel the need to buy in.

3) In a course of 20 or fewer students, do an oral exam. Yes, an oral exam. That means having students come to your office, or another designated place on campus, and discuss with you the relevant material. Certainly you should not ask each student a list of specific questions (because the questions will spread quickly) but rather talk to them about the meaning of the material, their analysis and interpretation, their thought processes. Do grade them on this and tell them beforehand that it is an exam. Most profs who do this set a specific time for the duration of the discussion such as 20 minutes. Some profs give an immediate grade, others a written grade with comments at a later time. Discuss the exam during a class session after everyone has met with you. And by all means do not meet with more than five students on any one day. Your energy and enthusiasm for the discussions will certainly diminish quickly.

4) Invite your immediate superior to visit your course during one class session. Invite them not for the purpose of evaluating you, but to contribute to the discussion and to see what you do without wearing the lenses of appraisal. For an even more interesting experience, invite the university president or provost to a class. Your students will then not only be able to meet these people, but also see them interrelate.

 

CREATIVITY AT ITS MOST EXCEPTIONAL

Here’s a fascinating classroom idea that’s not for the feint of heart. And it works, with tweaking, for all size classes.

1) Write the content of the class session in the form of a two-person interaction.  Perhaps one person asks the questions and another answers. Perhaps there’s a sort of debate. Perhaps there’s a back-and-forth dialogue that moves quickly. Or perhaps it’s a combination of all of the above. Write what you consider to be a great class.

2) Then, using very careful timing, have someone on campus with video expertise record you playing the part of one person in the interaction.

3) Then have that same person edit the video so that the final classroom presentation becomes you, physically in the classroom, interacting with you, the video person. In effect, you are having the class taught by two people interacting with one another. The twist is that both of the presenters are you.

4) The biggest problem in creating this is timing the video to allow for your in-the-flesh interactions.

5) Yes, I have seen this sort of presentation twice. To make it more creative, one of the profs had his video persona in a variety of locations such as office, coffee shop, library, and a few other campus landmarks. I have also seen it done with the prof getting students on video as the interactors and even occasionally an expert or guest to discuss and engage in the dialogue.

6) Another different sort of interaction is to have a guest speaker via Skype or some other conferencing software be “present” and be interviewed by the professor. The advantage of this is that the guest can literally be from anywhere in the world.

Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, it will take you out of your comfort zone. Yes, it’s a bit like a stage presentation.

But yes, why not?

Note: If you do not think this is for you, share it with someone you think would do this.

 

DO WE GIVE A DAMN?

To those of us who are the professors.

• Conventional wisdom says the old ways of teaching such as lectures and small group discussions are not really the best ways any longer.

• Conventional wisdom says the semesters are busy times for professors and the summers are for relaxation and research.

• Conventional wisdom says professors dislike committee work.

• Conventional wisdom says higher education might be broken.

And whether or not you believe in the conventional wisdom, you can believe that there is an incredible amount of writing and research out there about education in general and higher education in particular. And much of that research discusses new ways to do things, new techniques to use, new ways to incorporate technology, and quite simply, better ways to teach.

But do we as professors really give a damn about any of this? Sure, we might use Ipads in our classes or now use PowerPoint differently or incorporate clickers or try to lecture less even though it’s really hard to figure out what else to do. And we might always dislike committee work.

But do we give a damn enough to effect real change in higher education and to actually test and evaluate new methods? Can we muster the energy to be really concerned about teaching and how to do it better and how to get it right and then share what works with our colleagues and have luncheons that talk about teaching instead of just luncheons that discuss research? Can we? Do we?

Can we be supported by our institutions to attend conferences that talk totally about teaching? Can we bring that information back to our campuses and share it widely? Can we have on-campus grants that support teaching initiatives?  

We must.

We must take the reins in our own hands. Otherwise, those people in the highest ivory towers make all the decisions and those in the trenches just say we were too busy or too tired, but we still complain about the decisions. This is not an easy problem since those in the highest towers do not often want our help, but there is no need to simply hand them reasons for not including us.

Yea, it’s a busy time. But the system can never be fixed unless those of us who continuously use it are involved in the repair.

 

LEARNING FROM THE BEST: ROBIN WILLIAMS

Does Robin Williams have anything to teach us about teaching?

He was quick. His timing was impeccable. It seemed like there was never a script, never a moment’s hesitation in being the funniest guy in the room.

There was never a doubt that he knew his stuff. And while it looked so spontaneous we thought that because it was so good it couldn't be unrehearsed. But we never really knew. He had the ability to react instantly, to improvise, and to do it all in what seemed like an absolutely effortless way.

Robin Williams was an amazing comedian, an excellent dramatic actor, and also a very troubled individual.

And the remarkable qualities of his talent are things teachers can learn from.

But not all profs can embrace his style. His ways, his public persona, his frenetic energy is not for everyone and certainly not for every course. But for more than a few of us, incorporating some of those things is possible, and can be valuable, and productive.

Many profs do see teaching as part performing art, and there could be no greater model than Robin Williams. He was a whirling dervish of a guy, but he also could be a passionate, serious, profound character actor who succeeded cinematically as a teacher, therapist and physician.

Here are a handful of performance takeaways.

Don’t be afraid to be “on.” Be the most involved character in the classroom. Move around. Talk from the back, front, sides and middle. Sit and stand. Not constantly, but enough.

Learn to instantly adapt. See attention waning, change things up in tone and content. Be able to change the pace of your teaching, and able to react instantly to changing moments during a class. A quick mind that is always three steps ahead of the students is one of the tenets of a great teacher.

Don’t be afraid to be creative. It's important to get out of your comfort zone, to experiment a little (or a lot) while you’re teaching. Think about, remember, and view again the character (Mr. Keating) Williams portrayed in the film “Dead Poets Society.”

You’ll never be as adept as Robin Williams, but there’s nothing wrong with aspiring.

Carpe diem!

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT…WEEK SIX

It’s about halfway through the summer for most of you. If you’ve been regularly reading these posts you have, I hope, learned some things, been a little inspired by the TED talks, and thought a good bit about your academic life. There will be five more PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT posts this summer. Watch ‘em, read ‘em, and ponder your career and yourself. And let me know what you think. 

 

1. TED talk of the week: Body language is a significant factor in the lives of administrators, teachers and students. It can affect how people perceive you and how you perceive yourself. In a powerful and sometimes emotional talk, Amy Cuddy uses science and stories to show what we need to know about body language and perception. Watch it here. 

2. Article of the week: The author discusses the consumer model, applying it to the college classroom. “If in education, as in business, we get what we pay for, and the real currency with which students acquire knowledge and/or professional skill is their time and attention to the task of learning, not their money, then what students get from the class and from the instructor should match what they’ve paid for that educational experience. If students don’t want to pay a premium price for premium intellectual goods, then they shouldn’t expect to get premium personal attention from the instructor.” Read more of what she says here. 

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: Do you say "thank you" enough? Do you thank anybody and everybody who gives you a big hand or a small hand or any hand at all? Are you a master of acknowledgment? Thank you notes, thank you emails, in-person appreciations—all delivered promptly, often and sincerely--contribute to how others see you and to how you feel about yourself. Start today.

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Are you the kind of teacher your students delight in learning from? Do you get students to cultivate their passion and curiosity, and to engage their creativity? Do you stoke the creative fire of learning? Do you promote the goal of achieving ecstasy and joy in the learning process? Or do you say: “Whoa, I can’t be that passionate or that delightful or ecstatic or even that excited.” But the bottom line is that if you’re not those things, you could be a poor teacher. Ponder your role in light of the impassioned statements above. Figure out this week a few ways they can become part of your teaching persona.

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: How do you think the people who work for you and with you see you? Would they say you are a dreamer, an innovator, a by-the-book boss, a leader, a manager, burned out or loving your position. This week, consider those things, make some notes and then resolve to remedy the negative perceptions and accentuate the positive qualities. Really resolve to change. Really resolve to improve.

6. Shower thinking: Become a list-maker. Every morning write down three things that you want to accomplish during that day. THEN DO THEM. Over time, the habit of doing this will almost surely ensure success.

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT…WEEK FOUR

During the summer I will post each Monday. Each post will offer six elements intended to enable each of you to look, think, explore and imagine. 

 

1. TED talk of the week: In a TED talk that should be watched in its entirety, Bill Strickland, a MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient, tells a quiet and astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music, and unlikely partnerships. His conviction, that an atmosphere of high culture and respect will energize even the most troubled students, has a definite application to what we do in our universities. Watch it here.

2. Article of the week: Taking notes has almost become an activity that ceases to exist in classrooms today. But obviously it still is very necessary. Students often need to be taught the why and how of it all. Read some thoughts here.

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: What are the reasons why the courses you teach should be remembered by students long after those course have ended. How can you deliver a course that students will truly miss when it’s over? How can you motivate yourself to deliver meaningful words and images that matter during every single class meeting? Actors in theatrical productions can be engaged and enthused performance after performance. So can you. You just need to figure out how. Use this week to make some notes for yourself.

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Are you an expert teacher or just one who is “good enough?” Experts pay attention to what they do and look at every class and course as practice, with the constant goal of becoming excellent. The “good-enough” teacher doesn’t look at teaching as constant practice, but rather as just going through the motions. Good enough teachers no longer feel the need for concentrated practice, but are content to coast on what they’ve learned.

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: Is the program you administrate good, or is it great? Is the story you tell about your program a compelling, meaningful story with a bit of an emotional side? Can you explain its greatness? Do you yourself believe in the program, feel it, thoroughly value that it truly matters?

6. Shower thinking: The old school way of thinking said that teachers and administrators should be drill sergeants who demand strict adherence to the rules and procedures. And if that adherence is complete and absolute, then success will surely occur. The recent ways of thinking say almost the opposite. Not drill sergeants, but collaborators and team players who take milder, more negotiated approaches to the way things are to operate and to be determined.  But isn’t there really a middle ground where a bit of old and new can work to ensure excellence? Think about the characteristics of old and new that can actually compliment one another and form a coherent model for success.

 

BOOT CAMP. NOT FOR EVERYONE, ONLY THOSE WHO WANT TO BE THE BEST.

If you want to be a U.S. Marine, you first go to boot camp. It’s a 13-week course intended to physically and mentally change a person into a soldier. Upon successful completion the recruit is ready to fully engage in the tasks--pleasant, unpleasant, and horrifically unpleasant--of a soldier. And he/she has also been skilled in the art of working as part of a team and helping to strengthen and to support the team in every possible situation.

Training a soldier is really a personal building process intended to strengthen a team.

So why not boot camps in higher education; boot camps for departments or other academic units to grow and to perform and to innovate as individuals, and as a team? Obviously these would not be 13-week physical boot camps, but rather a shorter boot camp that builds collaboration and synchronization.

When? Have a boot camp right before school starts—for a week. Or have one during fall break, or Spring break, or even just after graduation.

Boot camps are great for rebuilding, reinventing, and creating new courses,  programs, processes and procedures. Boot camps can help strengthen teaching. Boot camps can help with burnout and a plague of pessimism. Boot camps can be great for new faculty.

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Requirements:
• Have the experience be for a week.
• Have it off campus.
• Announce it a year ahead of time and make it either required for everyone or designed for a small skunkworks of faculty/administration.
• Make it demanding.
• Make it different from anything done before.
• Address problems. Create solutions
• Use it to make your program the best. Use it to make yours the program that you can say to students at orientation: “We do not want some of you to major in our area. We want all of you to major in our area.”

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An example. Begin the boot camp with two hours of individual thinking. Send each attendee off by themselves (no contact with anyone else in the group) to identify one thing that needs improved, one idea that will totally and positively change the program, or one out of the box idea that changes the whole game.

Things that have sprung from boot camps can be very unusual. Ideas such as every course in the program will be team-taught. Or that courses will be for drastically different time durations. Or the fact that some courses will be sequential so that the same group of students meet during the semester in the same three courses for two full days of the week. The ideas are limitless and a boot camp actually gives time to figure out implementation.

Make the boot camp distinctive. Take people out of their mental comfort zones so the results aren’t just the same old things dressed in slightly different clothes. Make the point of the boot camp be teamwork, ideas, solutions, specific action plans, the future, innovation and abandoning the status quo.

Make your motto: "Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Very few programs will actually ever have a boot camp like this. That’s disconcerting.

But very few programs really have the will and the desire and the approach to be truly and absolutely the best.

 

LET TED'S IDEAS WORTH SPREADING HELP YOU BUILD A COURSE

All of us in higher education, I hope, have availed ourselves of TED talks. They are incisive, informative, creative, contagious and extremely interesting.

So why not make a series of these talks the basis and primary resources for a course?

Certainly such topics as technology, education, the arts, energy, and the environment, are perfect for course creation. Imagine, for instance, a course built around the TED talks and books by Ken Robinson. A course like this would be popular, I’m certain, with any education major.

My suggestion would be to show a couple of talks (they’re each no more than 18 or 20 minutes) during one class and then discuss those talks during the following class. Students obviously would have access to these and other related talks at any time to watch or review. 

To me there is absolutely no downside to this idea. The talks are interesting. The discussion and related materials can be educational. Learning can occur. Creativity is abundant.

But can you do this? What about the actual rules about using these talks? The policy at TED says: “You are encouraged to view as many TED Talks as you wish for free, and to share what you learn with others both online and offline.” You also must read and abide by the usage policy and the TED Creative Commons license, allowing you to use TED talks “to stimulate discussions with students or to complement course materials.” You might also explore making a class or two an actual TEDx event.

Try it out. Could be great for a short-term course, a summer course, even an online course.

The incredible resource is there. Why not take advantage of its value.

 

A TOOL THAT IS SIMPLE, RELIABLE, AND TRANSFORMATIONAL

In 1945 the invention of the overhead projector changed education. Schools could acquire these devices, and faculty could use them without assistance from the office known as AV Services. In those days the most complicated technological event, which often did require assistance was the showing of 16mm films.

Slide projectors entered classroom popularity in the 1950’s and they too were easy-to-use portable devices, requiring only an occasional changing of a bulb.

All of these apparatuses brought new dimensions to education, bringing visual communication to the classroom in ways a chalkboard never could. And the thing about these technologies was that both the overhead and slide projectors had the two things necessary to actually be adopted into education. They were simple and reliable. And both were also transformational, which meant they allowed teachers to do things they could not do before these technologies existed.

Which brings us to the present day.

Most of today’s technological tools are transformational, but not always simple and reliable. Ask anyone who has used an interactive whiteboard or even, on occasion, a video projector.

Perhaps the most transformational, simple and reliable classroom device existing today is a device not yet commonly used as a classroom tool at all.

That is the tablet, most notably represented by the iPad.

Tablets can be used as note taking and paper-writing devices, search devices, still and video cameras, audio recorders, video players and a virtual conglomeration of other activities. And a tablet can also contain textbooks in the form of iBooks or eBooks, which can be instructor-created or department-created or even be school wide creations.  And these textbooks can be bought at a fraction of the cost of a regular college textbook, or even sometimes cost nothing at all.

In fact, a single eBook/iBook and a dozen or more useful Apps can be purchased for the cost of one paper textbook. And each one of those Apps can be used for learning activities that are not just technology-for-technology sake, but rather for actual learning activities. And even equipped with a keyboard these devices do not take up the space of a laptop.

The perfect technological device to replace notebooks and pens, traditional textbooks, calculators, calendars, dictionaries and cameras hasn’t been invented yet. But the tablet is pretty darn close.

 

TEACHING HISTORY IN EVERY COURSE

Let me begin by saying that this is NOT a post about only history professors. It’s a post about the idea that all professors have a responsibility to mention and even to teach a bit of history, as far as that history relates to the subject matter of their course.

And all profs need to do it in a way that makes that history interesting, fascinating, curiosity-inducing, and even astonishing. Otherwise too many of our students are doomed to a life of disinterest and ignorance when it comes to the events of the past.

There are members of my own family who could care less about history because they never were delighted by the presentation of history as it related to their lives, their families, their thinking, and their culture. They find history insignificant and associate it with names, dates and events they feel they should not know about or care about.

And that is not only unfortunate. It is wrong. We owe it to all of our students to show them the what and the why of the past in ways that make those students both appreciative and curious.

Recently in the news in the United States there was a story about Jews in the Ukraine being forced to register with the government. Now to anyone familiar with World War II and with Adolph Hitler, this brings back thoughts of horrific acts of death and attempted extermination. And many college classes, when something like this is in the news, should bring up history and discuss it. The Holocaust is relevant to classes in history, mass media, psychology, sociology, English, political science, and film studies.

And the holocaust can be made devastatingly real by showing the 1951 French documentary "Night and Fog," created by Alan Resnais. There are very few 35-minute films as real as this one at depicting an event in history that should never be forgotten. And any student who sees it will remember it for years to come.

And it’s the same with many other subjects and events. Why not discuss baseball in early April by showing students a segment from Ken Burns’s multi-part documentary on its history, or the segment from Ken Burns’s documentary on the U.S. Civil War that discusses the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Show it on the date of the actual assassination. Or why not a telling of the story (in an interesting way related to your course subject matter) of the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, which set off a diplomatic crisis resulting in World War I.

Obviously this list could go on and on. But the point here is not only the discussing of these things, but the discussing of them in ways that make history interesting.

Why?

Because maybe, as the saying goes, without a significant understanding of history, we are doomed to repeat its tragedies.

It takes a short time in any course to introduce and to fascinate a student about a historical event. It also shows students that there is a certain attraction in historical events, and that there is knowledge and wisdom to be gained from an understanding of those events. 

 

FIRE, THE UNIVERSE, AND YOUR STUDENTS

Today is the day to ask your students:

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Are you writing the future

in letters of fire?

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And then you actually talk about it.

Then you tell them:

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We are here to make

a dent in the universe!
(Steve Jobs)

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And then you explain how and why you want to do that

And why they should want to do that.

And yes, then the class period is over…

And not a minute has been wasted…not a single minute.

 

THINGS TO PONDER ABOUT STUDENTS WORKING IN GROUPS

What the professor says: Listen up class; let’s divide into groups for a graded project.

What the professor thinks: How do I make this activity work? How do I make the grading fair? How do I not make it seem to the students like every other team project they’ve ever done in their college careers? And what about the student(s) in each group just along for the ride, not contributing and not interested?

Possible answers.

Question 1: What should be the size of a group?
The smaller the group, the less opportunity there is for slackers. Three is ideal. Anything over five or six is too many.

Question 2: Self-selected or instructor selected?
Ninety per cent of the time the groups should be instructor selected. That allows for balance and a fair mix of strong and weak students. Allowing self-selection also always means a couple of students will be drifting and they will have to be assigned a group, thus giving those students an additional psychological disadvantage. Another interesting thing can be that after the groups are assigned, allow one person from each group to switch groups by trading with another person. But only one person per group.

Question 3: Should a group leader be selected or assigned?
Not all groups need a leader. Usually a strong student will assume control anyway. If there is the need for a leader, have the group select its own leader. First task after that is to have the leader write down all names of the people in the group, gather their contact information, and to be responsible for making certain everyone in the group introduces themselves to the others. Also let the leader know that he/she should be the one to communicate with the professor if there are questions or problems.

Question 4: What are the considerations in evaluating the work of the group?
The easy answer is to give the group a group grade. Everyone gets the same grade. Methods that involve giving individual group members separate grades include having each group member submit a memo highlighting their contributions. Or having the group leader evaluate the contributions of each member in a face-to-face meeting with the professor. Another way is to have each group member assign a grade to every other group member based on his or her contributions and efforts.

Question 5: Are evaluations ever fair in group work? And can evaluation of group work stand up to a challenge?
Short answer: No. Often professors find that the documentation necessary to be recorded to fairly evaluate each and every group member negates any value of group work. But, the very purpose of having students work in groups is to teach each student to understand themselves in terms of working with others, to understand how to get along and work with teams that often involve those they both like and dislike, and to examine how learning can occur and not occur in group situations.

Group activities are seldom great ways for students to learn course content, but they can be great ways for class discussion and for students to learn how to act and react in these sorts of situations. And because of all this, the evaluation of the group as a whole is fairer than evaluating each individual. And despite the fact that slackers will often get a higher grade than they deserve, that becomes just one of the course disadvantages to group work.

Question 6: How can group work in my course be different from every other course?
Honestly, it usually cannot but something that often works is to simply explain to students that you do not want the same old group work they’ve done before, but this time you want something that truly demonstrates the collective intelligence and creativity of all the group members. Tell them to make it great, make it interesting, make it fascinating, and make it reflective of the combined intellect of all the members.

 

QUESTIONS FOR IVORY TOWERS TO ASK…AND ANSWER

1. Why, in today’s colleges and universities, doesn’t every student, in conjunction with one or more advisers, design their own major?  Departments would exist to offer courses in a particular specialty, and might suggest a major track, but most students would select “majors” based on the ideas and skills they are interested in pondering and understanding.
   
   
2. Students today can simply look up most of the terminology and the information that used to be taught in a course. Why shouldn’t every teacher understand that because of new digital technologies, projects and concepts can be much more complex and much less like the paper-and-pencil era of long ago?
   
   
3. Are professors discussing with students terms and ideas such as wisdom, lifelong learning, and the WOW factor?
   
   
4. Have university major programs changed their curriculum within the last three years, and have they put in place systems to constantly change and update that curriculum with more rapidly changing ideas and practices?
   
   
5. Creative learning spaces spark creative thinking. Is higher education rethinking the design of classrooms to support modern-day ideas and new ways of teacher-student and student-student interactions?
   
   

NO COURSES, NO CURRICULUM, NO STRUCTURE. THE SUDBURY MODEL.

The Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts is an amazing place. If you’ve never heard of it, prepare to be astonished.

In a recent issue of New Republic, Mark Oppenheimer explains the school this way:

The school was founded in 1968, and it currently has about 150 students, ages four to 19. The students aren’t grouped by grade level—there is no first grade, second grade, etc. There are also no grades in the sense of marks: A, B, C. There is no curriculum, and no required classes, although sometimes students organize to ask a staff member to give a class on a certain subject. Nobody is required to be anywhere at any given time. School opens at 8:30 in the morning and closes at 5:30 in the afternoon, and students are expected to be present for at least five hours during that time; they may stay longer if they wish. There are eight staff members (they aren’t called teachers), whom students may seek out with questions, for help, or just to chat. 

Now before reading further or making any judgments, I would urge you to read Oppenheimer’s article in its entirety here. It’s extremely enlightening.

Currently there are 35 Sudbury-model schools in 15 states and six foreign countries and each of them operates on basically a not-school-as-we-know-it paradigm. Yes, students do learn how to read and write. Yes, they do understand what school entails and yes they do leave with knowledge of many, many things and a hunger for education. And over 80 percent of them go on to college.

So, if it works for them, why can’t it work for us? What if some higher education institutions followed the Sudbury model? Yes, I can hear the readers of this blog gasping.

It could never work. What about majors? What about grades? Are the students mature enough for this? How would they graduate?

Again, according to Oppenheimer, here’s how Sudbury students graduate:

Students may enroll at the school until whatever age they like, at which point they may petition for a high school diploma. To get it, they have to explain, orally or in writing, how they are prepared for adulthood.   

WHAT! College couldn’t do that. Parents would not think they were getting their money’s worth. Students might actually do very little. Discipline would be a nightmare. (Read the article to see how discipline works at Sudbury.)

Yes, a university using this model would need to have requirements for a degree that are considerably more rigorous than just an explanation about maturity because students are, we hope, considerably more mature. But these requirements still could be very open-ended, couldn’t they?

Would/could this actually, really, honestly work? In the last post, I posited the sad fact of students not even wanting to learn. Now I’m positing the possibility of no actual curriculum or courses. Have I gone crazy?

I think that thinking about drastic models for change in any area, particularly education, is good for society. Education is rooted (and some would say stuck) in the methods and practices and ideas of the distant past. But higher education is changing in numerous ways.

Not only do we have online learning, but we also have schools that teach by reading the great books, and schools that concentrate on cooperative learning, and schools like Evergreen State College  in Washington, that offer innovative interdisciplinary, collaborative and team-taught academic programs.

So why can’t one more of those ways be Sudbury-like universities? They wouldn’t be for every student, but they certainly could benefit some.

Pondering change is easy though. Enacting change is, unfortunately, very difficult. But it can be done.